The invention is in the field of mechanical engineering, in particular mechanics, and relates to the transfer of torques and movements via flexible shafts. Flexible shaft drives are known from different fields of the art, with them varying greatly with respect to the torques to be transferred and the speeds. Shaft arrangements are, for example, known from the field of flexibly usable machine tools which run at relatively low speeds and should transfer high torques, whereas shafts are known from dental engineering which rotate at extremely high speeds and transfer lower torques.
Different problems result in the operation of such shafts, in particular as a consequence of the vibration behavior. Small asymmetries at certain points of a shaft arrangement and/or at certain speeds can result in knocking movements with corresponding unpleasant noise developments and in mechanically high strains due to friction between the shaft and its guidance.
Different proposals have become known on how to be able to reduce such knocking movements, for example from German patent No. 350682, in which the kinking of a sleeve of a flexible shaft at points is proposed to narrow the inner contour of the sleeve sectionally and thus to enforce a direct and clearance-free contact of the shaft in these regions, which is associated with a certain friction, but may result in a clearance-free guidance of the shaft and thus in the prevention of knocking movements.
DE 103 24 717 A1 discloses a ductile drive cable in which a core is surrounded by a circle of leads, with the leads having different cross-sections and an asymmetrical arrangement thereby arising within a jacket.
In accordance with JP 61 062614 A, a core is provided within a sleeve and in a jacket with the latter, with the sleeve and the jacket each extending in the same sense and coaxially to one another in changing arcs.
It is known from the laying-open publication DE 195 41 549 A1 to deform a sleeve, in which the shaft runs, selectively inwardly radially toward the shaft to fix the shaft sufficiently in the interior of the sleeve. It is moreover mentioned there that corresponding deformations can be offset helically section-wise. Squeezing, arching and compressing the sleeve is spoken of there.